An Interview with Constantine Demos, Co-Author of the Tradition Continues - Spartan Football

Constantine Demos' new book, "The Tradition Continues - Spartan Football" brings together a collection of fine photographs and memories all centered around Michigan State's Spartans. This book covers all of the shining moments and you will discover something about everyone connected to the Spartan Football Team.

The collection of photographs in this magnificent book is amazing. The Demos Brothers managed to acquire photos that cover Michigan State Spartans and all of the people that play a part in the Michigan State University Football Team. As soon as I received the book, I requested an interview.

The following is an interview with Constantine Demos, co-author of the book " The Tradition Continues - Spartan Football".

Con, the first thing I notice when picking up your book is the incredible job you did acquiring photos.Tell me about the beginning. What were your first steps in going about gathering this collection?

Over several years, my brother and I had taken many photos at Michigan State games. I had a great collection of photos of games that we knew we would use. In order to complete the total history we had to go and get those photographs from different eras. A friend of mine had been doing a paper and utilized the Museum achieves. This turned out to be a great source for the early years. We also went to the MSU Sports Information office and found historical photo's, recaps of games and interesting articles there. I had also started up a web site for the MSU football players association ( www.msufpa.com). In constructing the web site we needed pictures so we went internal to the football office and photograph all the memorabilia that we could find.

In reading About the Author, I see that you were once a student manager for the Spartans. I can also tell that this experience was quite a shining moment in your life. Would you like to pass on any tips to other students that would like to get involved in a sports program even if they are unable to play due to injury?

Because of my passion for football, I had to be a part of the program. That was a given. I look back on that experience and it was the most memorable of my college career. To be a part of an intercollegiate program, one that taught you how to get along with others, teamwork and responsibility, was an awesome experience for me. I learned responsibility, how to manage my time and learned of defeat and how to bounce back from it. All of which helped mold me and gave me a great introduction to what corporate life would be about. My fondest memories are with my team mates and we are like family , and always will be.

I read that you came back to your Michigan roots after an invitation to a football reunion. You are obviously close with the brother that Co-Authored the book with you, did writing the book together create a new bond?

I would say that this was one of the greatest benefits of the whole project. As a kid I looked up to my older brother and he helped me in many ways. As we went our separate ways and our careers took us apart, we were in contact but it wasn't like it was as kids. When we started this project we were together for hours and days. It took us four years to put this all together. I can say that this experience brought us as close as we had ever been. Not to say that we didn't disagree at times on the content and the format of the book.

Your book covers the spectrum of Michigan State Spartans, the players, the team history, the programs and you even remembered the band. If you had to choose one favorite section of your book, what would it be and why?
I can't say that just one section of the book is my favorite. First the early years as MAC were years that I did not know much about and it was so gratifying in doing the research to learn of the start of the program and what the program had to endure . The other part I liked is putting together all the memorabilia that had been accumulated all the years of our program. These were to be placed in storage and wouldn't be seen by our fans, many of which never saw any of this. By placing them in the book we were able to allow all our loyal Spartan fans the opportunity to see and read all that our program has accomplished.

Your book beams with enthusiasm and Spartan pride. This book seems the perfect way to pass on that enthusiasm to future Spartans, family and fans. Is there anything else, any other message you would like to pass along?

One of the main reasons I wrote the book was for this exact reason. Spartan Pride and Tradition. We have a rich
history of our program, six national championship and now this year our seventh Big Ten Title. So many of our
current generation were unfamiliar with our past golden years of football and I felt strongly the story needed
to be embellished on and retransmitted.

Tradition seems alive and well at Michigan State. Is there any tradition that you have seen lost over time
that you would like to see brought back ?

As a mater of fact there was something that was lost and we did reinstate it. When Coach Dantonio came on campus , I had a meeting with him and gave him several items that I think had meaning. The one that comes to mind is that on game day the team would walk together from Kellogg Center , a hotel on campus, to the stadium. The team use to walk past The Spartan Statue in my era and pitch a penny at Sparty for good luck. Mark liked the idea and rerouted the walk to take the team past The Spartan and once again "pitch a penny"!.

I know that writing this book has been a passion in your life for the past few years. What is next for you?

Right now we are still in the process of selling the book. So far we have given back to Michigan State Football
program in excess of $150,000.00 . I feel good about this and still see us contributing another $50,000.00 by
the time the book is totally sold out. Our plan now is to keep accumulating data and information and every 5 years or so utilize the same format in DVD form to update the history and make it available to those who have the total history to date.

I found this book to be an absolute pleasure. The history of the team and the memories that are included in this
book will make a Spartan fan out of anyone that loves the sport.

* Information on how to find and purchase the book.
The book has a web site( www.msufpatraditionsbook.com ). From there you can see a summary of what is in it
along with the bookstores that carry it. The book is also offered for sale on line.